List Price: $14.99 Our Price: $13.49YOU SAVE $1.5!
Buy it
DVD The Twilight Zone - Vol. 21
Volume 21 of The Twilight Zone DVD collection is a real keeper, beginning with "Mirror Image," a classic first-season episode starring Vera Miles as a woman whose sense of reality is shattered when she encounters her exact double in a bus station. Her fear of being "replaced" reaches a fever pitch, despite the efforts of a fellow passenger (Martin Milner) to calm her frenzied nerves. As the woman is taken away for psychiatric examination, her terror turns out to be entirely justified--emphasizing paranoia as one of Rod Serling's favored themes. The second-season entry "Dust" is pale by comparison--a lethargic tale of magic in the Old West that redeems a man about to be hanged for drunkenly running over a little girl with his wagon. He's saved from the noose by a bit of "magic dust," but the true pardon has come, of course, from the Twilight Zone.
"Five Characters in Search of an Exit," scripted by Serling, is a third-season highlight in which the titular characters--clown, hobo, ballet dancer, bagpiper, and army major--are trapped in a giant cylinder, with no understanding of how they got there. The truth provides the kind of O. Henry twist that was Serling's specialty, and the performances by William Windom and Murray Matheson (as the belligerent major and carefree clown, respectively) offer a delightful study in dramatic contrast. Finally, "Ninety Years Without Slumbering" is a casualty from TZ's fifth season--a badly rewritten story (originally scripted by acclaimed series contributor George Clayton Johnson) starring veteran screen comedian Ed Wynn as an old man who's convinced he will die if his treasured grandfather clock ceases to tick. Robbed of its dramatic impact by a soft ending that compromises Clayton's original idea, the episode remains entertaining on the strength of Wynn's endearing performance. --Jeff Shannon
All of the episodes on this DVD are fine, especially the surreal "Five Characters in Search of an Exit." "Ninety Years without Slumbering" is a charming script, even if the ending is a little weak. Ed Wynn is superb throughout as an elderly gentleman who suffers from a delusion involving an heirloom grandfather clock. I wouldn't want to reveal the endings of any of the episodes, so you'll just have to trust me that they are three good ones. In short, you can't go wrong with this DVD.
two good, two average
Music by Jerry Goldsmith and Bernard Herrmann accompany the shows on this Twilight Zone DVD. Mirror Image and Five CHarecters in search of an EXit are the best shows on this `DVD. The other two are pretty below average stories.
The power of beliefs in "The Twilight Zone"
The common element for the four episodes in Volume 21 of "The Twilight Zone" DVD series is the power of belief and what it can mean for your life, your sanity, or both. In "Mirror Image," written by Rod Serling, Vera Miles plays Millicent Barnes, who thinks everybody in the bus station must be insane since they all act like she's already been there. Then she looks in the washroom mirror and sees herself sitting in the waiting room. Her paranoia increases throughout the episode, even when a concerned stranger (Martin Milner) tries to help, until the shattering conclusion. Serling's "Dust" offers a nice pair of performances by Thomas Gomez as a peddler named Sykes and Vladimir Sokoloff as the father of a man due to be hanged for running over and killing a little girl in his wagon while he was drunk. Having sold the hangman brand-new hemp for the noose, Sykes sells the old man a bag of "magic dust" that he claims will turn hate into love. Of course, the bag contains only ordinary dirt, but the old man will try to use it to save his son.
"Five Characters in Search of an Exit," written by Serling and based on the short story "The Depository" by Marvin Petal, will remind the more literate members of the audience of a classic existential play by Pirandello. A clown, hobo, ballet dancer, bagpiper, and an army major (William Windom) find themselves trapped inside an enormous, featureless cylinder. They do not know who they are or how they got there. "Ninety Years Without Slumbering," written by Richard deRoy and based on an unpublished story by George Clayton Johnson, stars Ed Wynn as Sam Forstmann, who is convinced that his own life will end when his grandfather clock stops. A visit to a psychiatrist does not appear to help, but to make his granddaughter happy, he sells the clock to a neighbor, but with the provision that he can make regular maintenance visits. Then the neighbors go on vacation and inside the locked house, the clock begins to wind down, making Sam quite frantic. There is an unexpected twist to the expected twist on this one, but the script does not do Wynn justice. However, the other three episodes are all above-average "Zones," so you do come out ahead with this volume.
Twilight Zone, Vol. 22 kicks off with "A World of Difference," a memorable episode written by frequent contributor Richard Matheson. The story gives Howard Duff a rare opportunity to prove his underrated talent, playing an average businessman who arrives at his office only to discover that he's actually an actor on a soundstage. "Back There" is decidedly less effective, featuring hammy overacting by Russell Johnson (who would soon be cast as the Professor in Gilligan's Island) as a man cast backward in time to the day of Abraham Lincoln's assassination. He can't alter history, so the ending is a foregone conclusion, but the segment is noteworthy for its scoring by composer Jerry Goldsmith, then in the early stages of his stellar career.
I have most of the TZ dvds and plan on getting them all. This one marks the 30th I've bought and I have to say it's the best so far. All four episodes are strong and good, and there's something for everyone. For the fun-lovers, there's "Rance McGrew" - a light-hearted TZ episode that's really funny in certain parts. For the child in all of us, there's "The Big Tall Wish", which tells us to never stop believing in the magic. For the more serious-minded traditional TZ lovers, there's two excellent episodes in "Piano in the House" and "Night Call" - both excellent in every way! While most TZ dvds suffer from a slow episode or two thrown in with a few strong ones, this dvd has nothing but goodies on here. A great one to start your collection with! More Info about this DVD Director(s): Ida Lupino - Alvin Ganzer - Richard Donner - Allen Reisner - John Rich DVD Release Date: Released the 13 June 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $14.99 Your Price: $4.99YOU SAVE $10!
Buy it
An above-average edition in the Twilight Zone DVD collection, Volume 23 begins with "Long Live Walter Jameson," starring Kevin McCarthy as a Methuselah-like history teacher whose lessons are based on personal experience--but his secret of longevity is discovered with fateful results. McCarthy's climactic aging scene marked a milestone in TV makeup effects, and it's still dramatically effective. The same can't be said for "Dead Man's Shoes," a typical episode in which a Bowery bum (Warren Stevens) steals the shoes off the body of a murdered gangster, and instantly assumes the dead man's identity, thus assuming his role in a deadly cycle of fate. It was a good idea in 1962, but the pulpy plot and characters were hokey even then.
Volume 20 of The Twilight Zone DVD collection opens with "Elegy," a first-season episode in which three astronauts are forced to land on an Earthlike asteroid where all of the people seem frozen in time. The only exception is an elderly "caretaker" (Cecil Kellaway), who explains that the asteroid is actually a cemetery where the dead are posed in the posthumous fulfillment of their fondest wishes. This was the third episode written by the prolific TZ contributor Charles Beaumont, and it ends with the requisite twist.
"The Thirty-Fathom Grave" is from the fourth season, when episodes were expanded to one-hour length. The cast includes such TV stalwarts as Simon Oakland and Bill Bixby, but the standout is Mike Kellin, who plays Chief Bell, a crewman on a present-day Navy... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Twilight Zone - Cecil Kellaway DVD Release Date: Released the 03 April 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $9.99 Your Price: $4.97YOU SAVE $5.02!
Buy it
